Filing-receptacle.



M. WIESNER.

FILING REGEPTAGLE.

. APPLICATION FILED APR. 5, 1911.

Patented J an. 2, 1912;

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MORITZ WIESN'ER, OF ROCHESTER, NEW YORK, ASSIGNOR T0 YAWMAN 8; ERBE MANU. FACTURING COMPANY, 013 ROCHESTER, EEW YORK, A. CORPORATION OF NEW YORK.

FILING-RECEPTACLE.

Specification of Letters Patent.

Application filed April 5, 1911.

Patented Jan. 2,1912. Serial No. 619,144.

To all whom it may concern.

Be it known that I, MORITZ WIESNER, of Rochester, in the county of Monroe and State of New York, haveinvented certain new and useful Improvements in Filing-Re ceptacles; and I do hereby declare the following to be a full, clear, and exact description of the same, reference being had to the accompanying drawings, forming a part of this specification, and to the reference-numerals marked thereon.

My present invention relates to office furniture and more particularly to paper filing devices, and it has for its object to provide a simply constructed receptacle of the type intended for the vertical filing of papers which can be enlarged or contracted for the accommodation of documents or papers and their index or partition cards of different dimensions, means being provided for guiding and locking the cards, which means are capable of being adjusted to occupy proper positions with respect to the receptacle according to its size.

A further object of the invention is to so divide a desk or other drawer, or similar container, into separate receptacles or compartments intended for the accommodation of papers of different sizes whereby with a few simple operations, either size may be located at the front or more accessible portion of the container.

To these and other ends the invention consists in certain improvements and combinations of parts all as will be hereinafter more fully described, the novel features being pointed out in the claims at the end of the specification.

In the drawings: Figure 1 is a top plan view of a drawer constructed in accordance with and illustrating one embodiment of my invention; Fig. 2 is a perspective view thereof from the side with one side wall broken away; Fig. 3 is a longitudinal central section taken substantially on the line 33 of Fig. 1, and Fig. 4 is a transverse section taken substantially on the line H of Fig. 1.

Similar reference numerals throughout the several figures indicate the same parts,

I have illustrated and will describe the improvements in the present instance in connection with anordinary desk drawer comprising front and rear walls 1 and 2 and side walls 3 which latter are connected at an intermediate point by a partition wall 4. The latter divides the interior of the drawer into two compartments or receptacles A and B which will be presumed to have their longitudinal extent transversely of the drawer so that the partition 4 forms a side wall common to both and the front and rear walls 1 and 2 of the drawer form, respectively, a side wall for each. The partition 4. is removably seated in one or the other of two pairs of holding grooves 5 and 6, one arranged in front of the other with respect to the drawer as a whole and the proportions are such in the present instance that when the partition is in the forward pair of grooves, as shown in Fig. 1, the front receptacle A is smaller than the rear receptacle B, but when it is withdrawn and slidably inserted in the rear groove the relative sizes of the receptacles are reversed and the front one becomes the larger, as shown in Fig. 3, one side wall of each receptacle being thus adjustable toward and fiom the opposite side wall thereof to widen or narrow it.

The bottom wall of each of the receptacles A and B is composed of two preferably rigidly secured but relatively spaced panels 7 and 8 and 8 and 9, the panel 8, in the present instance, forming part of the bottom of each receptacle, and the spaces between these panels provide slots or channels 10 extending longitudinally of the respective receptacles and parallel with the side walls. A further addition to the bottom is provided in the nature of an intermediate laterally movable panel 11 which may be shifted from one side to the other thereof so that a guideway 10 of a width equal to the difference between the width of the channel and of the movable panel is formed by one or the other edge of the movable panel 11 and one or the other of the fixed panels, the two positions being shown, respectively, in Figs. 2 and 3.

The vpartition or index cards, such as represented at 12 and 13 in Fig. 3, usually fit rather closely within their receptacles and are provided at their lower edges with downwardly projecting securing tongues or portions 14 and in the present instance these operate in the guideways of the receptacles. As the tongues are usually placed centrally of the card to preserve balance and prevent binding, the guideways 10 must also be centrally arranged, but it will be seen that as the partition wall 4 is shifted between its two positions in the drawer, the center lines of the respective receptacles that it defines are shifted. In the practice of the present invention, therefore, the parts are so proportioned that when the partition 4 is in the front set of grooves the shifting of the movable panel 11 toward it in chamber A to the opposite side of the bottom slot or channel l0 and away from it in receptacle B will adjust or form the guideways 10 for the retaining tongues on the cards centrally of each receptacle. Similarly when the partition member 4 is changed to the other grooves and the one receptacle increased and the other decreased in size, the panels are shifted oppositely to bring about the same results, and the different sized cards of the two receptacles shown in the present embodiment may be then interchanged.

If it is desired to use lock rods or similar devices for locking the cards in position or guiding them, a removable rod 15 for each receptacle or compartment may be employed for which purpose there is provided at each end of the bottom slot a pair of sockets 16 so spaced that one socket of each pair comes at each end of and in central alinement with the narrow uideway 1O no matter upon which side of the movable panel the guide way happens to be formed. The panel 11 of receptacle B is omitted in Fig. 3 in order to show the pair of sockets at one end. The rod 15, when inserted in one or the other set of sockets thus alined, lies within the slot and guideway and passes through suitable openings 17 in the securing tongues 14 of the cards but when the guideway is changed on the shifting of the partition member-4 and panel 11 it may be withdrawn and similarly inserted in the other set. The bottom panels 7, 8 and 9 may be connected to the side walls 3 of the drawer by the usual rabbeted joint indicated at 18 in Fig. 4 and secured by glue or otherwise while the shiftable panels 11 are similarly, but loosely, held in the rabbets which form guides therefor.

The above construction is very simple, it can be cheaply produced and the adjust ments described for changes in the size of the compartments may be quickly effected with great ease. Vith two sets of filed papers in the drawer, either of which may be contained in the front compartment, the user is enabled to have that set which he most frequently consults in the more accessible position.

I claim as my invention:

1. In a filing receptacle, the combination with two side walls, one of which is adjustable toward and from the other to two positions to vary the width of the receptacle, of a bottom wall having a longitudinal channel therein, a laterally movable member extending longitudinally of the channel and shiftable across the same according to the position of the adjustable side wall of the receptacle to form, in conjunction wlth either wall of the channel, a guideway adapted to receive the retaining devices of the partition or index cards.

2. In a filing receptacle, the combination with two side walls, one of which is adjustable toward and from the other to two positions to vary the width of the receptacle, of a bottom composed of two fixed panels spaced apart to form a longitudinal slot or channel and an intermediate movable panel narrower than the slot and shiftable laterally across the same according to the position of the adjustable side wall of the receptacle to form, in conjunction with either of the fixed panels, a guideway adapted to receive the retaining devices of the partition or index cards.

3. In a filing receptacle, the combination with an adjustable side wall for varying the width of the receptacle, of laterally adjustable means at the bottom of the receptacle for forming a guideway for the securing devices of the partition or index cards according to the position of the adjustable wall.

4. In a filing receptacle, the combination with two side walls one of which is adjustable toward and from the other to two positions to vary the width of the receptacle, of a bottom wall having a longitudinal channel therein, a laterally movable member extending longitudinally of the channel and shiftable across the same according to the position of the adjustable side wall of the receptacle to form, in conjunction with either wall of the channel, a guideway, adapted to receive the retaining devices of the partition or index cards, a pair of sockets at each end of the channel, one or the other of each pair having an alined position with reference to the guideway whatever the position of the shiftable member and a removable rod adapted for insertion in the guideway and in the sockets alined therewith.

5. The combination with a desk or similar drawer, of a transverse partition therein dividing the drawer into front and rear receptacles, said partition constituting a side wall common to both and being adjustable to two positions longitudinally of the drawer and transversely of the receptacles to vary the Widths of the latter, of a bottom Wall for each receptacle having a longitudireceive the retaining devices of the partition nal channel therein and a laterally movable or index cards. member extending longitudinally of each channel and shiftable across the same ac- MORITZ VIESNER' cording to the position of the adjustable Witnesses:

side Wall to form, in conjunction with either WALTER B. PAYNE,

Wall of the channel a guidevvay adapted to RUSSELL B. GRIFFITH.

Copies of this patent may be obtained for five cents each, by addressing the Commissioner of Patents, Washington, D. G. 

